Except for two 2s,Virtue and Moir received 3s on GOE for every element from both the short and free dances. Except for nine 9.75s, they received 10s for every PCS from both the short and free dances. They received level 4 on every element from both dances.

Maleeva wrote:Will Larkyn Austman get the automatic bid to Pyeongchang since she came in third? I don’t know if Canada treats their nationals as a 100% Olympic trial.

What can they do, send Larkyn and Alaine to 4CC for a skateoff? That way, both would be exhausted and whoever won wouldn't have much left over for Pyeongchang. IMO, Larkyn clearly outskated Alaine, who had her usual missed combos and URs.

Maleeva wrote:Except for two 2s,Virtue and Moir received 3s on GOE for every element from both the short and free dances. Except for nine 9.75s, they received 10s for every PCS from both the short and free dances. They received level 4 on every element from both dances.

My lord that has to be unprecedented, even at a nationals!!!

Unprecedented marks for an unprecedented team!

They were flawless here, so I'm happy to see them rewarded for it. The changes to their free make it far stronger, really building to the end of the music. It was a very emotional skate (for me! oh, ok, and probably for them, teehee).

Although I worry about the fix being in for their chances at OGM, I do hope they can deliver the goods so at least they can feel that they did all they could to get the gold.

Also, KEEGAN MESSING! So enjoyed his skates this week and hope that he too can continue to build to Pyeongchang. There was a real "go for it" attitude for the men's free, with lots of quad attempts and many completions. Nice to see them not play it safe.

LADIESGabby Daleman is not my favorite skater stylistically, but she's one unapologetic competitor. She's hinted many times not so subtlely that she wants to beat Kaetlyn Osmond head to head and she did just that, and IMO, more handily than the scores indicate.

Three falls over two programs for Kaetlyn Osmond and I have to say I'm not even surprised by it at all. That's a pretty consistent FS for her, but certainly not one that'll challenge Medvedeva for the gold. Maybe Bradie Tennell does have that outside chance at that bronze medal!!

PAIRSMy favorite event here. I watched all 7 pairs. From what I understand the bottom 3 pairs have all only been teams for just 2 years or less, so it was impressive for me to see how far they've come along in their pairness.

As for the battle for the Olympic season: my gut told me after Skate Canada that Iliushechkina & Moscovitch would be the team staying home. They have a very well choreographed program, but so do Moore-Towers & Marinaro and Seguin & Bilodeau. It just seemed that I&M had the most issues w/their big ticket elements and it proved to be their undoing tonight. I at least hoped it would be a close dog fight to the end, but it really wasn't all that close.

MENTHA-RILLED for Keegan Messing!!! I thought that silly 3flip would cost him big, I'm glad he eeked it out. Honestly, I think Keegan's style is way underappreciated by the judges. As much as I do get excited about guys reeling off quads, it isn't JUST about the quads. Keegan can land quad toes, BTW, but his footwork sequence, IMO, should be rewarded and recognized MORE. Furthermore, I think the ISU can SHOULD use Keegan's program here as a test case for how PCS should be analyzed. The footwork sequence may not have been a Level 4 for the technical side, but Keegan maintains character throughout the sequence and is a perfect fit for, WITH, and TO the music. He may not be trying quad Lutzes or quad flips, but I'd watch his performance any day over some of they guys who land those jumps, but skate with hardly an ounce of charisma.

I was also very happy to see Eladj Balde skate unapologetically for himself, the Canadian fans, and for the sheer love of skating. Again, nowhere near today's level of tehcnical firepower, but where he focused on entertaining the crowd w/original (albeit hardly the most difficult) and skating with his full soul, Eladj was victorious! I hope he gets assigned to Four Continents for one last competitive hurrah along w/Ross Miner and Max Aaron. They can all bro out afterwards!

Jonas wrote:THA-RILLED for Keegan Messing!!! I thought that silly 3flip would cost him big, I'm glad he eeked it out. Honestly, I think Keegan's style is way underappreciated by the judges. As much as I do get excited about guys reeling off quads, it isn't JUST about the quads. Keegan can land quad toes, BTW, but his footwork sequence, IMO, should be rewarded and recognized MORE. Furthermore, I think the ISU can SHOULD use Keegan's program here as a test case for how PCS should be analyzed. The footwork sequence may not have been a Level 4 for the technical side, but Keegan maintains character throughout the sequence and is a perfect fit for, WITH, and TO the music. He may not be trying quad Lutzes or quad flips, but I'd watch his performance any day over some of they guys who land those jumps, but skate with hardly an ounce of charisma.

Your thoughts...

So agree with you here, and let's not forget about his spins, which are fast, well-centred, and, yep, in keeping with the overall tone of the program.

And, can we also say he is one classy act, hugging Balde as he was coming off the ice, just as he was about to compete himself.

Okay, I went back and hunted for the nugget I remembered about Daleman learning a quad toe and I'm pleased to report that I didn't imagine it! It was from Skate America, not the GPF.

It's on this video, around the 2:00 mark: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Knru67f59E Tara Lipinski reports that Gabi told her that she came home from Cup of China and started working on a quad toe with the jump harness in her rink. A day or two later she tried the jump without the harness and she was hitting it cleanly! She told Lipinski she planned to unveil it at Canadian Nationals and use it to beat Osmond.

Well, I guess this strep throat put paid to that idea, and she turned out not to need it to whip Osmond. She beat her handily in Vancouver. But I can see why, with that huge, gorgeous triple toe-triple toe, she felt confident to try a quad.

Canadian Olympic Team has been selected and includes all the medalists other than 3rd place man as Canada only qualifiedtwo men for Olympics. Keegan Messing s going to Olympics! So happy for him. He has duel US-Can citizenship by the way.